It’s Time To Call!

It’s Time To Call!

TEXT:

‘Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven’ – James 5:14-15

THOUGHT:

The Bible reveals various means through which a person can be healed, although all are only through the name of Jesus. One way which is largely neglected by Christians is calling for the elders to pray and anoint them with oil. The promise is that the prayer of faith will save them, and the Lord will raise them up healed and forgiven. There are 5 aspects we would do well to consider in order to see this practise prominent in the church again.

• Frustration

Is sickness stopping you from doing what you want, especially in regard to the church? Often sickness rears up its ugly head and says, “You can’t go now”, or “You can’t do that anymore!” What is our response? Usually we try to battle through on our own. But often we sink in doubt and despair, particularly if it is something that seems to re-occur frequently. “Oh no, here it comes again!” we sigh and get weary battling the same problem over and over again.

When David fought Goliath, he selected 5 stones but only needed 1. Later on, he and his men had to fight and kill 4 more giants. ¹ It was not sin or unbelief that caused the same problem to re-occur. It came from the same family! The giants had to be killed one by one until there were no more. If the same sickness re-occurs, just look at it as another giant that needs to be defeated.

• Fear

This can be the next downward step after frustration. We fear the consequences and start talking fear instead of faith. ‘The thing I greatly feared has come,’ said Job. ² Fear is faith in reverse. It attracts the wrong things. Fear paralyses, like a rodent transfixed by the snake’s gaze, or a rabbit caught in the headlight’s beam. Both want to run but cannot and become easy prey.

At the end of today, do a spiritual check-over and see how much of what you thought and said was negative, driven by frustration and fear.

• Fellowship

The text presumes the Christian is part of a local church. In fact the New Testament expects every Christian to be a regular attender. ³ It is amazing how many aches, pains and sicknesses suddenly manifest on a Saturday evening, Sunday morning or just before the midweek meeting and stop the believer from attending.

Isolation is spiritually weakening and is a tactic of the devil. David was nearly killed by one of the giants and needed Abishai to come to his rescue. ⁴ We need other Christians. Once isolated, it is easy to start thinking, “It won’t matter if I don’t go. They won’t miss me. Nobody really cares about me!” The end result is that you miss the meeting and the church misses you in the meeting. Both are losers and the weaker for it. When all the time God and true Christians are wanting to come to your defence and rescue.

• Honour

Calling, recognises and honours those God has set in authority over us within the local church. If we do not appreciate or speak well of them, it is unlikely we will call on them to pray for us. There will be no faith to do so. The same is true for leaders. If they do not appreciate and speak well of their congregation, wanting God’s best for them, they will not be ready to respond with the prayer of faith, when that call comes. But when both honour, that becomes the recipe for success!

• Faith

In 1977, one of my Bible College lecturers said about the church he grew up in, “It was an unusual thing for people to stay sick.” They had learnt the importance of calling. Even miners who got injured underground, once they reached the surface would immediately call for the elders. God honoured their faith and obedience.

Note the emphasis, ‘Let them call.’ The one sick has the first responsibility to call. It’s not the job of the pastor or elders to phone and find out that person was missing church because they were sick. It is the sick person’s responsibility to call for the elders before then. By doing this, they are in reality declaring their faith. They are really saying, “I need you to help me overcome this because I do not want to miss fellowship with my fellow-believers.” Calling reminds us we have a sense of worth.

All too often, it’s the pastors who are calling the sick to come forward for prayer, instead of the sick asking for prayer as soon as they arrive in church. If you cannot get to church, then call so as to minimise the time away from the meetings.

One Sunday a young mother missed church. She had fallen down the stairs and hurt her back. She immediately asked for prayer, so I and an elder went after the service to pray and anoint her with oil. An X-ray later confirmed she had cracked her coccyx and the examining doctor informed her that she would be in severe pain for weeks, even months. “We’ll see about that” was her reply, explaining that she had received prayer. Within a couple of days all pain and restriction had gone. Her recovery was remarkable, all because she called!

Do not let passiveness, fear and unbelief rule your life and stop you from calling. God has given you a measure of faith. Use it to become an overcomer. Your faith will win some battles. At other times it will be the faith of others which will help to carry you through. Either way, your faith will be rewarded because you called in obedience to God’s word.

 

1 – 2 Samuel 21:15-22            2 – Job 3:25                 3 – Hebrews 10:25

4 – 2 Samuel 21:17